VIII-03: An opportunity to position yourselves as true nature's
problems solvers.

Project 2: Eco
Villages without ideology.

VIII-04: the Villages of Wholesome Life.

Part 2 - Absolute
necessity to preserve

"Absolute
necessity to preserve the world's Asian natural heritage"

Since the 18th
nov 2001 you are th
visit of sens-de-la-vie.com.

French
version.

Reviving Khao
Phra Thaew.

To
photograph wild elephants with a telephoto lens from the comfort
of a minibus on the plains of Kenya or Tanzania, is a pleasant but
rather dull experience compared to the thrill of discovering the
elusive pachyderms by stalking them within the confines of a
tropical forest. Experiencing this for the first time gives you,
without doubt, an emotion of a quite unique nature !

This, and many
other powerful emotions, are what we wish to have the public in
general, and the Thai youth in particular, experience through the
revival of Khao Phra Thaew. Touching the heart of all those who
visit it in such a way that they become aware - under the
supervision of enlightened experts - that their own existence as
human beings is indeed linked to this forest, and to Nature as a
whole.

The absolute need to appreciate this is paramount in view of the
extent to which such precious endowments of nature continue to be
ravaged.

I
Absolute necessity: preserving the world's natural heritage.

"This
we know: all things are connected like the blood which
unites one family....Whatever befalls the earth, befalls
the sons and daughters of the earth. Man did not weave
the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he
does to the web, he does to himself."

With this
declaration made by American Indian chief Seattle as early as
1854, Europeans who had taken over the land of America, were
warned against a serious dangers that their disrespect to nature
would endanger.

This
statement, made 148 years ago, truly was visionary because
industrial civilization is had bring significant changes to the
natural environment nowadays. Threatening the very existence of
the Biosphere (interactions between all the living organisms: from
micro-organisms to man) and the vital quality of the atmosphere.
The planet itself is therefore at risk. Our very own spaceship may
no longer be able to sustain us in a near future! Man is only part
of a whole: he belongs to Earth - his destiny is depends of hers-
and he cannot exist without it.

To
reverse the process of destruction of nature which is leading us
right to the mass
extinction
already started, is still possible: we need to unite our efforts
toward that goal.

This becomes
an absolute priority when we understand that saving nature is
quite simply the only way to save humankind, (assuring it of a
wonderful place to live) and furthermore this must also be
accomplished withing this decade because we have no time to waste
(according to many scientific researchers).

II
Specificity of the
flora and fauna
of the Southeast Asia.

Asian
panthers

Before
the second world war, South East Asia was famous for the quality,
and the variety of its flora and fauna.

Many
aristocrats, or higher middle-class Europeans, such as Omer
Sarraut or my friend François Edmond-Blanc came to hunt
prestigious species there like the tigers, rare leopards, wild
elephants, the Asian rhinoceros or, some of the large wild
Bovidaes: the gaurs, the koupreys, the bantengs, the takins and
the water buffalos.

An adult Gaur: a ton of
muscles for a 2 meters height .

Southeast Asia has
indeed the privilege to shelter one of the most singular fauna in
the world, the rarest of the planet.

Here are some
examples.

This area is very rich in many species of stags, and also has
large wild boars, but are there also:

many species of birds, among which pheasants (more than 10 rare
species), peacocks, and the bankivas (the ancestors of the
domestic chickens), parrots, raptors (many diurnal as well as
nocturnal species) ospreys, and fishing birds: cormorants,
anbinguas, tantalums

Coq
Bankiva, the ancestor

watery and bordering water fauna,

crocodiles,

snakes (numerous species) and varans,

the unique fauna of the mangrove of which the periophthalme or
terrestrial fish,

periophthalme

etc.,

This is
only one short outline of the diversity of the fauna. The
flora's richness in a rain forest too much to describe, just
have a look at Khao
Phra Thaew.

In
a word the Southeast Asia is the sanctuary for the rarest species of
our planet and must remain so with our help.

III
The original ecological pyramid of the Asian tropical forest.

When
I arrived on Phuket island in 1995, I was told that
the last tiger had been killed by poachers twelve
years before my arrival, in 1983.

At its
begining - I relate to an already remote past - like any rain
forest of the tropical zone, Phuket's forest must have sheltered
almost all of the animals that appear on this illustration.
Needless to say, all the species are not mentioned in that pyramid
like the common wild boar (sus scrofa), or the wild cock Bankiva
which are still present as are thousand of others when it comes to
reptiles, batrachians and insects

If the smaller
species are almost intact today, most of the larger ones have
already disappeared. I wrote their names in
red
and the names of those which never lived on the island in
white,
the others are most likely still present.

This
need for help to nature is particularly obvious and useful in
Thailand:

because
it is the last refuge of the rarest fauna and flora of Asia,

because it shelters
10 % of the fauna's species found on our planet as well as 25
000 species of plants.

Plus, contributing to
a wildlife sanctuary there is made easy because of the security
offered by this peaceful country.

L'Express 5/4/2000: "there
are some 25 000 species of plants in Thailand. Eventhough the
Silatham's principle requires Buddists disciples to maintain
natural balances, a suicide was necessary in order for Thailand
to decide to really protect its natural inheritance.

On September first
1900, Seub Nakhasathien, a civil servant of the Royal Forest
Department, took his own life, disgusted by the floods caused
by new dams. He had been mobilizing the population against them
for ten years.

The King, moved and
shocked, took charge of his funeral and accelerated the
creation of Protected Zones.

Presently, close to
13 % of the Country is safeguarded: 77 national parks, 36
natural reserves and 40 hunting free zones shelter a fauna and
flora unknown to Occident".

Nearly
10 % of all animal species are found in Thailand,

280
species of mammals (this country is the kingdom of bats and
wild Bovidae),

925 species of birds
(there are only 600 in Europe).

And 140 species are
endemic: they can only be found in this country, and nowhere
else.

As for the plants, the botanists arrived at the hallucinating
figure of 25 000 species, without counting the seaweeds or the
ferns. The most beautiful orchids are numbered at 1300, and are
always threatened by collectors. F.D."

And, like
everywhere, the fast demographic and economic development of
the kingdom of Thailand, a positive fact of itself, has
recently had the consequences of a fast and exaggerated
exploitation of natural resources, some of them seriously
threatened, like teak wood or wild animals, frequently victims
of poaching.

Fortunately,
due to the vigilance of the thai authorities, lead by the the
King, the fauna remains abundant there in many refuges.

It is also
a paradise for rare snakes.

and
many others species,

like this pangolin, which is a mammal contrary to what one
might think because of its scales.

Or finally this Muntjac.

Natural assets of
Thailand:

Unlike
its neighbors, Thailand did not suffer from any of the enormous
damages caused by wars to natural environments. Moreover, the
recent phenomenons of economic and demographic developments have
not yet damaged its natural heritage in an irreversible way. These
facts in conjunction with the recent measures for conservation are
the reasons why Thailand still has a significant and unique
natural heritage as well as vast untouched territories to prove
it.

IV
Definition of the project and its 3 objectives:

The
ambition of the project is quite simply, to use the largest
possible available land to create a well managed reserve, made
accessible to the public and thus, equipped for it , which would
assure the safeguard of the rare and beautiful fauna and flora of
Southeastern Asia. The reserve would have to be enclosed but not
divided within, thus protecting both the animals and neighboring
men alike.

This
is not a proposal for a zoo, it is one for a park
where the animals' living conditions must be natural.

Species of the
Southeastern Asia fauna and flora that would happen to be missing
in their natural state on the allotted territory would be brought
to the reserve or replanted while making sure that the necessary
ecological balance between the flora and the phytophagous animals
would be preserved.

These animals
will have to subsist by themselves, to feed and reproduce in a
natural manner, without human intervention besides that of a good
livestock management program (reckoning, possible elimination of
sick animals, keeping the balance between the species and the
sexes, etc.) as well as a monitoring program of its impact on the
flora on which it feeds.

Because
of its size, the initial financing of the project can only be
assured mostly by sponsors companies of all nations, because
nature conservation is a world service.

On the other
hand, the annual income generated from tourist frequentation, both
thai and foreign, must be large enough to ensure the financial
autonomy of the project which operations will not have to be
assumed by thai public funds.

This
achievement, if properly promoted through the medias, would have a
considerable impact on a worldwide public opinion, which is
extremely receptive when nature conservation is
concerned.

The project
will thus have three beneficial aspects:

1.
The conservation of Thailand's natural heritage.

2. A
positive impact on Thailand's "public image".

3. An
increase in the tourist frequentation of the Kingdom.

Two of
the project's objectives will have to be harmonized:

The Protection of the fauna and flora, which implies: using the
largest possible surface without any road going through it or
human dwellings on it, a landscape allowing the installation of a
fence, permanent running water resources and a nutritional
vegetable cover. The minimum surface required for this to be
technically credible must be of 5000 acres, and more would
obviously be better: African reserves can cover 2,5 million acres.

The highest possible tourist frequentation, which implies: that
the selected territory be deforested in some small areas to
provide access to it and enable visitors to better view some wild
animals, that the localization be as close as possible to Phuket
international airport, the most popular tourist destination of the
Kingdom and that getting to it be accessible by bus or by car
within 3 hours of Phuket.

The ideal
spot is obviously Khao Phra Thaew.

The final
choice will inevitably have to be a compromise between these two
requirements.

Since it isn't
possible to guarantee that a visitor will actually be able to
witness some wild animals in the tropical rain forest itself, the
tour could begin by a walk around a giant birdcage of about 8
acres surrounded by a fence of at least 100 feet high made of a
vertical and discrete net without any ceiling. There, one would be
able to contemplate an extraordinary variety of birds, beginning
with the phasianidae which primarily live on the ground, much like
phasianides (as chickens) and would never feel like leaving this
enclosure providing they had water and food naturally available to
them there.

The
healthiest could choose to continue their visit on foot. The
use of quiet cross-country vehicles would be provided for the
not so healthy or lazy visitors who could get access to
specific zones of the park that way...

But,
in my opinion, the ideal way to feel the spirit of a virgin
tropical forest will always be by riding on the back of an
elephant. An alternative that we would love to offer Khao Phra
Thaew's clientele.

There is
absolutely no doubt that many tourists who come to Phuket every
year, would spend at least a day or two in Khao Phra Thaew and
possibly spend a night or more in one of the comfortable lodges
that could be built there as well.

Since many
of the forest's inhabitants will have remained hidden during
the day, those visitors spending the night there would
definitely be able to hear, and with chance to see, some of the
members of the nocturnal fauna

Do you
realize that if only 5 % of the 3 million tourists already
getting to Phuket island each year were interested in visiting
this reserve, it would mean a minimum of 150 000 people ?

And that is
a very conservative estimate of how attractive this project
would be to those already visiting the area -
ô)

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?

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